Forever Feel This Way
by Bexish
Summary: Lorelai wants to play matchmaker. Her victims? Luke and Sookie. Takes place around the middle of season 1.
1. I Really Hate To Let This Moment Go

A/N: I once started an ill-fated fic based on the episode Cinnamon's Wake so this is sort of take two based on the idea I had. I honest don't know how far I'll get with this as I've never tried writing about anyone but Rory and Jess, but I thought I'd throw it out here! The chapter titles are from Don't You Wanna Stay by Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson, because it was very hard to think of a title.

* * *

"I want to set up Luke and Sookie."

"What have I told you about meddling in people's personal lives?" Rory asked, dragging a fry through a puddle of ketchup. They were Luke's fries, but at least they weren't at Luke's. Not that their proximity to Luke would have affected Lorelai's behavior in any way.

Lorelai considered this. "To proceed with caution?"

"To not do it."

"Come on!" Lorelai whined. "Think about it. Sookie is single. Luke has been single his whole life. They both like food."

"I like food, but that doesn't mean I'm going to date Luke," Rory pointed out.

"That's because you already have your Andy Hardy," Lorelai said. "And Luke is much too old for you anyway. However, he is not too old for Sookie."

"How old is Luke, anyway?" Rory asked, thinking that maybe if she talked for long enough she could get Lorelai to drop the subject. She could not picture Luke and Sookie together at all and wanted to spare them both an awkward date that Lorelai would no doubt set up at a fancy restaurant.

"Under forty?" Lorelai guessed. It had probably come up at some point before, but she couldn't remember an exact age. "He isn't covered in gray hair or anything so it's all good."

"Do Luke and Sookie have anything in common besides both working with food? Very different kinds of food, I might add," Rory said.

"Their names," Lorelai said without missing a beat. "Luke. Luuuke. Sookie. Sooookie. It's the same sound."

"Very observant. So they're the perfect match because they can both cook and have similar vowel sounds in their names."

"Exactly," Lorelai said. "And Luke wears the shirts."

"What shirts? You're really starting to lose me here," Rory said, swiping a handful of Lorelai's fries. She was so into this idea that she was completely ignoring her food and Rory couldn't let good fries go to waste.

Lorelai sighed. "You remember Greg, right?" Greg was Sookie's previous boyfriend. They had been together for three months over a year ago. "Greg, with the Hawaiian shirts? Greg only wore one kind of shirt. Luke only wears one kind of shirt. There are similarities there."

"Did it ever occur to you that Sookie dated Greg despite his affinity for rad florals?"

"It may have crossed my mind," Lorelai said, waving away the suggestion. "But it's more than just the florals. By only wearing one type of shirt, Greg demonstrated that he was dependable and not likely to switch things up randomly. Luke is dependable too."

Rory shook her head. "You are reading way too much into this," she said. "Why don't you just ask Luke out if you're so concerned about him being single?"

"I am perfectly happy with Max, thank you very much. And because I am so happy I want to spread that joy around a little bit. And who better to spread it to than my dear friend Sookie?"

"I'm glad I already have a boyfriend," Rory said. "I would hate to see who you would set me up with."

"That is so rude," Lorelai said, poking a hole in the bun of Rory's burger. "Luckily for you I am not familiar with the high school crowd these days so you're pretty much on your own socially."

"I appreciate that."

"But Luke and Sookie…"

"Mom, do not try to set Luke and Sookie up on a date," Rory said. "You know they would both say yes because no one can say no to you and then they would end up having an awkward and terrible time, but they would never tell you that so you would encourage them to go on a second date and they would to be polite but it would be even worse than the first time."

"Wow, you've got this all planned out don't you? Maybe I'll just mention it to Sookie and see what she thinks. Casually."

"Have you ever successfully mentioned anything casually?"

"It'll be totally casual," Lorelai promised. "I'll ask her about it at work tomorrow."

"What are you going to say?" Rory asked.

"Oh, don't worry," Lorelai said, a proud smile on her face. "I'll be totally cool about it. She won't even know what I'm up to."


	2. Touching Your Skin

"What do you think of Luke?" Lorelai asked, walking into the kitchen of the Independence Inn in the next morning. She had meant to bring it up naturally in conversation at some point later in the day, but she hadn't had nearly enough coffee yet and it just slipped out?" "Huh?" Sookie was stirring something at the stove, but she didn't sound like she normally did when she was distracted by her cooking. "Did you say something? Sorry, it's been a long day."

"It is 9:06," Lorelai said, checking her watch while she poured a cup of coffee. Or attempted to. There was about a quarter of a cup left in the pot and it wasn't particularly hot. "Is there any more coffee?"

"It's in the pot," Sookie said, not turning around.

Lorelai held the pot upside over the sink, watching the last of the cold dregs drain out. "Did you invest in a magical never-empty coffee pot that you're hiding somewhere? Because I don't think what's left in this pot could be considered coffee. Not today, at least."

"What?" Sookie sounded irritated as she pulled the pot off the stove and joined Lorelai at the counter. "I swear I just put a pot of coffee on."

Lorelai pushed a button on the side of the coffee maker. "You got about halfway there," she said, putting a fresh mug under the stream of coffee. "What's up with you today?"

"Greg called me last night," Sookie said, chopping up a carrot. "He said that his AA meetings have been going really well and he's one year sober and thinks that we should reconsider our relationship."

"I didn't know he had a drinking problem," Lorelai said, thinking back to the time she had spent with Greg. Maybe it explained all the Hawaiian shirts.

"Neither did I," Sookie said. "He seemed so normal! And we had a lot of fun together. He was always thinking of interesting things to do. If that's what he was like drinking all time what would he be like sober?" She shook her head, very nearly taking off the end of her finger with the knife. "I told him that it wasn't a good idea and that I had moved on, but talking to him again really just threw me for a loop."

"Who did you move on to?" Lorelai asked. Had Sookie been holding out on her? She was never going to say yes to a date with Luke if she was seeing someone else.

"Not to someone else. Just past him."

"Oh, okay," Lorelai said. She took a sip of coffee, debating her next move. "While we're on the subject, what do you think about Luke?"

"Luke? Why?" Suddenly Sookie gasped, upsetting the pile of carrots she'd cut. "Oh, you're not thinking of breaking things off with Max for Luke, are you? But you and Max are so good together! I really thought he could be… _the one_," she whispered.

Lorelai laughed. "I'm not breaking up with Max!" she said. "No, I was thinking that maybe you would like to go out with Luke sometime."

"I would? Lorelai, I don't know. I barely know the guy! Wait, he didn't ask you to ask me out for him, did he? That is so middle school!"

"No, of course not," Lorelai said. "I just thought since you're both single and you both cook that you could have a good time together."

"That's crazy, Lorelai. You know, before you got together with Max you and Kirk were both single, and I bet you both like to watch TV. Maybe I should have set you up with Kirk!"

"Sookie, calm down!" Lorelai grabbed a piece of carrot, even though raw carrots tended to taste like dirt. "It was just an idea. Forget I even mentioned it."

Sookie nodded. "Consider it forgotten," she said firmly, turning to wash her hands. She smiled slightly, since Lorelai couldn't see her face. It was nice of Lorelai to think of her. But seriously, she saw Sookie with Luke? It just didn't make any sense.


End file.
